Does he write in danish and get translated or does he write in english?

He never travels so I guess his english isn't the best.

I'm not very Von Tried literate...

he writes in danish and hires a translator.

also, check this out lads, but be warned, THERE MAY BE SPOILERS:

'It was like a nursery - but 20 times worse'

Lars von Trier on the highs and lows of making Dogville

Monday January 12, 2004

Stig Bjorkman There are elements in Dogville that are reminiscent of classic Anglo-Saxon literature, from Fielding to Dickens, with the omniscient narrator's voice and the division into chapters, where the chapter headings give an idea of what is about to happen.

Lars von Trier That's true, but it's more likely I had a book like Winnie the Pooh in mind when I was writing the screenplay. There, at the beginning of each chapter, you read things like, "In which Pooh and Piglet go hunting and nearly catch a Woozle", for instance. Things like that, which really get your imagination going. One of my favourite films is Barry Lyndon, which is also divided into chapters, although I don't remember if there are any clues as to what the chapters are going to contain. The screenplay of Dogville is divided into scenes. It might say, "The scene where this or that happens ..." "Scene" is a word with a lot of meanings, and I chose it on purpose. But later on we switched to calling the scenes "chapters", partly because of the word's literary associations.

SB If we look at the parallels with the theatre, Dogville is very reminiscent of Brecht and instructional works of his like The Good Woman of Setzuan or Mother Courage.

LVT The film was certainly inspired by Brecht. I would prefer to call it second-hand inspiration, though. My mother was really keen on Brecht. She left home when her father broke her Kurt Weill records, old 78s. She was only 16 then, but Weill was her great musical passion and she couldn't bear what her father had done. Brecht was something of a domestic god when I was growing up, whereas my generation has tended to view him as a rather old-fashioned genius. Fashions and tastes are constantly changing, of course.

But Dogville is inspired by Brecht. One of the starting points was actually Pirate Jenny's song in The Threepenny Opera. I listened to that a lot and was really seduced by the great revenge motif in the song: "And they asked me which heads should fall, and the harbour fell quiet as I answered 'All'."

SB Can you say a bit more about how you got the idea of Dogville, apart from Pirate Jenny's song?

LVT I think the idea came about one day when I was in a car with Jens Albinus, the actor who played the lead in The Idiots. We happened to be listening to that song, and I said I could see myself making a film about revenge. I thought the most interesting thing would be to come up with a story where you build up everything leading to the act of vengeance. And, of course, these days I've got this notion that I can only make films that are set in the US, maybe because I was criticised when Dancer in the Dark came out for making a film about a country I've never been to. I can't really understand that sort of criticism. (But one reason for it might be that I criticised the American justice system in the film.) And I daresay I know more about America from various media than the Americans did about Morocco when they made Casablanca. They never went there either. Humphrey Bogart never set foot in the town.

SB Did you get the idea for the form of Dogville at the same time as the plot?

LVT No, when I wrote the screenplay I saw it as a conventionally formed film. But it felt boring. Then I went on a fishing trip to Sweden, and wasn't having any luck! Suddenly I had the idea that you could see the whole of Dogville as though laid out on a map. That the whole story could be told on an unfolded map. I'm pretty fascinated by the limitations that unity of space can give you. Another source of inspiration was one of the best things I've seen on television: Trevor Nunn's adaptation of Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby with the Royal Shakespeare Company. It looked like the actors were allowed to improvise from the text. It was a magnificent production.

You can do almost anything on film now. With the help of computers, I can insert a herd of elephants into a scene, or create an earthquake. But that doesn't interest me. I'd rather draw the shape of a dog on the studio floor to mark that there is a dog there, or put a crate of beer in a corner to indicate a bar.

SB The plot of Dogville is largely driven forward by a narrator's voice, rather in the style of old English novels. Was this the intention when you first got the idea for the film?

LVT It was there right from the start. As usual I wrote the screenplay very quickly. It was a fairly large script, about 150 pages, but once I have the idea for a story and start writing it down, the words fall over each other and the writing process itself is quickly done. I haven't read much classic English literature. But I've read Wodehouse, for instance, who uses the same sort of subtle, knowing tone that I've tried to get across in the text. After one screening, the artist Per Kirkeby (with whom I'd worked on Breaking the Waves) said it reminded him of Dickens's Great Expectations. I've seen the film, and it too has a rather ironic narrator's commentary that reveals some of the characters' underlying motivations.

It was an incredibly tiring shoot. Dogville was filmed in about six weeks. That's fast. Unnecessarily fast. I could have taken longer, but at some point before we got started I recklessly declared that I'd have the job done in no time. It was tough work as well. I was running about all day long with that bloody camera on my shoulder. It might strike some people as a confusing way of using the camera, but this is how I want it. I can't defend the technique apart from saying that I think it's the best way to shoot my films.

SB What did all these American Hollywood stars with whom you've adorned your film make of it? It must seem very strange to them.

LVT I don't know about that. I'm sure they've had a lot of opinions about my way of working, but I think they've been pretty happy, in spite of everything. I know Nicole [Kidman] was completely in tune with what I was doing. I was asking her to do things in front of the camera that were pretty demanding, and she just did them. She evidently realised that a lot of thought had gone into this way of working, and that there was a point to doing it this way.

SB When did Kidman become involved in the project?

LVT She was there right from the start, because I wrote the screenplay with her in mind as the female lead. I had seen her in Far and Away, which wasn't a particularly good film, and I had read an interview where she said she would like to work with me. So I thought, "OK, I'll write a film for her." I hadn't met her at that point. I didn't have any idea that she was as tall as she is. She's gorgeous.

SB And the other actors? Did you choose them all, or were they suggested by your casting director?

LVT It varied. I knew some of them from before, of course, like Stellan Skarsgard. And I'd dreamed of working with Ben Gazzara for a long time. The same with Philip Baker Hall, whom I'd seen in Magnolia. Some of them got in touch asking to be involved, like Jeremy Davies and Chloe Sevigny. That was great, because they're both really good. We've been lucky. But what a bunch to try and keep in check. It's like a children's nursery, only 20 times worse!

We lost quite a few days when Katrin Cartlidge had to leave the set. I had to record all her scenes again with Patricia Clarkson, who took over the role at four days' notice and made something very different but also very personal out of it. And now Katrin is dead. I miss her terribly.

SB At the beginning of Dogville the narrator says of the male lead, Tom: "Although he did not blast his way through the rock, Tom tunnelled through what could be even harder, namely the human soul, deep into where it glittered." Is this what you want to say with the film?

LVT In that case you could say that Tom is a sort of self-portrait. As the Danish author Klaus Rifbjerg once put it: "I chop myself up into a number of smaller pieces, and there I have the characters in my story." I think that applies to me, too. At any rate, it's true of Grace and Tom. I can argue from both their points of view.

Do you know the child's game where you have to adopt a point of view and argue purely from that opinion? It was a good game, and it was best when you had to argue in support of a point of view that was completely opposed to what you yourself thought. Arguing for inappropriate and wrong points of view. That's why it was such fun writing the speech given by Grace's father (James Caan) at the end of the film, where he expounds the shortcomings of humanism. I was just trying to persuade myself of the opposite of what I personally stand for. It was great fun! I'm very happy with the exchange between Grace and her father, where he says people are like dogs, and she replies that dogs act according to their nature and that we must understand and forgive them. And her father replies: "Dogs can be taught a lot of good things, but not if we forgive them every time they follow their nature."

SB Tom is a remarkable mixture of idealism and calculation.

LVT Yes, he's thoroughly cynical. But then so am I. My very first film, the short film The Orchid Gardener, opened with a caption stating that the film was dedicated to a girl who had died of leukaemia, giving the dates of her birth and death. That was entirely fabricated. A complete lie. And manipulative and cynical, because I realised that if you started a film like that, then the audience would take it a lot more seriously. Obviously. Death and sickness are things we have great respect for.

SB You're also planning a sequel to Dogville.

LVT I am. One of my problems is that I would really like to start a new experiment in form with each new film. But now I want to complete this experiment in a trilogy. Making three three-hour films in this style, that would be pretty monumental.

Naturally there are problems involved in making three films in exactly the same way stylistically. But the idea is to develop Grace's story. I've written the next part, called Manderlay, which is set in the southern states, and I've got it in mind to set the last part in a big city, Washington or somewhere like that. The trilogy could be described as a depiction of a woman's development to maturity. Nicole has indicated that she would be interested in us continuing to work together and playing the part again. It's possible that she'll change her mind when she's read the next script, but I hope she won't. It would be nice to do three films that connect directly to one another. The next part starts two days after the end of Dogville, so all three films will be set in the great depression of the 1930s.

I like these long stories. It's like reading a good book and leafing ahead and realising that you've got lots and lots of pages left to read ...

· This is an edited extract from Trier on von Trier edited by Stig Bjorkman, translated by Neil Smith

NEW YORK -- Indie distributor Koch Lorber Films has acquired North American rights to indie auteur Lars von Trier and Jorgen Leth's 2003 experimental docu feature "The Five Obstructions." Koch Lorber said the film will continue to run on the festival circuit -- it has screened at Toronto, Sundance and Venice -- and will open nationally in the second quarter. Koch Lorber will then release the film on DVD in the fall. The collaboration between the two filmmakers has its roots in 1967, when Leth made a 12-minute short called "The Perfect Human," which von Trier saw more than 20 times. Four years ago, von Trier challenged Leth to create five different remakes of "Perfect Human" with a different conceptual "obstruction" impeding each version. "Five Obstructions" follows a filmmaker not only revisiting but also re-creating one of his first films. The project was acquired from Trust Films of Denmark, with Rikke Ennis negotiating on the part of Trust and Richard Lorber on behalf of Koch Lorber.

Logged

“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol

i can't wait to see the the five obstructions. i missed while it was in the theaters here but all of my friends who saw it, all loved it, and it sounds like just the right kind of dry sarcasm mixed with a very interesting story.

is the element of crime criterion dvd very bare bones aside from the transfer? I love this movie and was thinking about getting it, but I already have a worn out vhs copy that suits me fine if the dvd release is just the movie with a great transfer.

I just got Element...It's fairly bare bones...there is a documentary on Lars which was very interesting, but aside from that there isn't much more.

I picked up this magazine I'd never heard of before called Black Book. It featured conversations between celebrities. One was between Lars and PTA. I like Lars' stuff but I couldn't believe what he said:

LVT: (he's talking about Nicole Kidman's character in Dogville)..... the mixture with Nicole and Grace was a very good one, and I liked that, and then I suddenly saw that I had an obligation to carry on with Grace, to carry on this way of filmmaking, because it's very, very easy to invent new things all the time, but it's not very mature, I feel. So if I really meant something with this film, they I felt I should underline it by going on. Because there are, as I see it, two kinds of directors: there are the ones that, every time, set a new standard, like Kubrick. And then there are the directors that keep on doing the same stuff over and over, again and again. Of course, there are mixtures between these types, but somehow, the mature one is the one that does the same, again and again and again.

I couldn't believe that he would rather be a director that does the same thing over and over again, and he believes that's what a mature director does. All the while insinuating that Kubrick isn't a mature director because he 'every time, sets a new standard'. As an artist how can you even hope to grow without trying new things and experimenting?

is the element of crime criterion dvd very bare bones aside from the transfer? I love this movie and was thinking about getting it, but I already have a worn out vhs copy that suits me fine if the dvd release is just the movie with a great transfer.

I just got Element...It's fairly bare bones...there is a documentary on Lars which was very interesting, but aside from that there isn't much more.

It's a great dvd. Go buy it NOW!!! The doc is great, and pretty long. And they have a top-dog trailer included.

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Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary: the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

A friend from Portland visited me and brought along the DVD of Dogville, and we watched it. It's an all-region DVD of best quality, from Korea; I'm seriously considering buying it. I'll probably go to the film's American theatrical release, too, if it ever gets one. It's definitely something to behold.

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""Money doesn't come into it. It never has. I do what I do because it's all that I am." - Morrissey

"Lacan stressed more and more in his work the power and organizing principle of the symbolic, understood as the networks, social, cultural, and linguistic, into which a child is born. These precede the birth of a child, which is why Lacan can say that language is there from before the actual moment of birth. It is there in the social structures which are at play in the family and, of course, in the ideals, goals, and histories of the parents. This world of language can hardly be grasped by the newborn and yet it will act on the whole of the child's existence."

A friend from Portland visited me and brought along the DVD of Dogville, and we watched it. It's an all-region DVD of best quality, from Korea; I'm seriously considering buying it. I'll probably go to the film's American theatrical release, too, if it ever gets one. It's definitely something to behold.

LVT: (he's talking about Nicole Kidman's character in Dogville)..... the mixture with Nicole and Grace was a very good one, and I liked that, and then I suddenly saw that I had an obligation to carry on with Grace, to carry on this way of filmmaking, because it's very, very easy to invent new things all the time, but it's not very mature, I feel. So if I really meant something with this film, they I felt I should underline it by going on. Because there are, as I see it, two kinds of directors: there are the ones that, every time, set a new standard, like Kubrick. And then there are the directors that keep on doing the same stuff over and over, again and again. Of course, there are mixtures between these types, but somehow, the mature one is the one that does the same, again and again and again.

I couldn't believe that he would rather be a director that does the same thing over and over again, and he believes that's what a mature director does. All the while insinuating that Kubrick isn't a mature director because he 'every time, sets a new standard'. As an artist how can you even hope to grow without trying new things and experimenting?

I love his films, but the more I hear him talk the less i like him. His whole thing about how actors are the obstacle to making a good film and how he feels he is knowledgable about what America should be, even though he's never actually been there, he just sounds like an ass. I really liked the interview when Anderson was telling Von Trier that he might not know how to talk to his actors. It put him on the spot.

I mean Dogville, may be a great film, and part of filmmaking is stirring the pot and creating controversy to illuminate what you see as problems in society, but for Von Trier to make such an indictment on American society with having little to know personal experience with it, just makes his statement hollow to me. It would be like McG making a movie about what he feels is wrong with Saudi Arabian culture. Maybe Dogville is a commentary based on the image of what our entertainment and political culture portrays America to be, and thats fine. But I think Von Trier, as smart as he is, ought to know the difference between reality and media portrayls.

I think he just relished the minor clamour that ensued with Dancer in the Dark and its, rather unfounded, alleged anti-american slant. So he set out to up the ante and make a name for himself, perhaps. At any rate I love his films, but I think he's a cock.Then again I'm just going on how he comes off in interviews. But I think he is feeding into his own hype, and we see what that did to Spike Lee.

I love his films, but the more I hear him talk the less i like him. His whole thing about how actors are the obstacle to making a good film and how he feels he is knowledgable about what America should be, even though he's never actually been there, he just sounds like an ass. I really liked the interview when Anderson was telling Von Trier that he might not know how to talk to his actors. It put him on the spot.

I agree with you 100%, except that whole thing about loving his films. I really don't get the hype.

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My life has taken another turn again. The days move along with regularity, over and over. One day indistinguishable from the next. A long, continuous chain. Then suddenly, there is change.

I love his films, but the more I hear him talk the less i like him. His whole thing about how actors are the obstacle to making a good film and how he feels he is knowledgable about what America should be, even though he's never actually been there, he just sounds like an ass. I really liked the interview when Anderson was telling Von Trier that he might not know how to talk to his actors. It put him on the spot.

I agree with you 100%, except that whole thing about loving his films. I really don't get the hype.

Most times, actors ARE an obstacle. Just like producers usually are, and lazy, apathetic crew memebers, and by-the-book editors, and studio PR men, and pretty much every person a director has to hold off and manipulate and corral into making a good movie.

I like Von Trier. I may not see eye to eye with him politically, but of his films that I've seen, they've all been great, and I like how he doesn't feel the need to sugar-coat his process.

Logged

Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary: the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

I don't know about youse guys but I kinda dig his attitude. If you're going to make a movie, try to have a big experience. Get your actors locked in a hangar, act weird towards them, et cetera. You can't deny that Lars Trier movies have terrific performances. Wait till you see Dogville.

I've only seen his last two films, but I wish he would get away from the Dogme 95 influence and understand that it is doing him no good at all. Realism and emotion can be shown in a much better way than just have a shaky camera and bad lighting all the time. Dogme 95 has no understanding at all of how to show realistic emotion in a movie.

yeah i have to agree with GT. i really just dont like this guy at all. just watched Breaking the Waves, (had previously only seen DiD), and i'm really just not interested in what he's doing. his idiot female leads are just agonizing to watch for 2 1/2 hours.

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Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.